


Penumbra

by Tarlan



Category: Alien Series, Aliens (1986), Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: Action, Community: smallfandomfest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-17
Updated: 2008-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:28:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riddick escapes from the Pitch Black world but needs the help of a stranded Hicks to escape from another - Fiorina.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penumbra

**Author's Note:**

> Written for smallfandomfest FEST04 - Aliens/Pitch Black, Hicks/Riddick, alien encounter

Through his shined eyes, the creatures on the dark world were beautiful as they broke through the cathedral mounds that had kept them safe during more than two decades of sunlight. He watched their shining forms soar high into the pitch black sky, saw them swoop and turn like a flock of birds before heading towards the few survivors of the crash. He dived just in time for them to miss him, feeling the downdraft from their beating wings across his back.

Interesting, he thought. Perhaps they weren't the perfect killing machines after all for they had lost track of him once he moved out of their line of sight, and if they had a keen sense of smell then his normal scent did not register either, probably because he was coated in a fine layer of the dust that covered this barren world. He wondered if the creatures knew the scent of blood though; whether they could smell it in the air with the same ease that a shark on Earth scented blood in the water. The one they called Shazza made a run for it. Big mistake on her part but with the voracious flock focused on ripping her to shreds and eating her, Riddick eased up from the ground and made his way back to the relative safety of the broken ship as the small creatures flew off with their prey. He stopped to watch as the cathedral mounds began to crumble, seeing larger versions of the creatures take flight in their hunt for fresh food. Where the smaller ones dived and swooped like a flock of swallows, these larger ones beat the air like raptors before soaring high on the thermals still rising from the hot sand and dust. The temperature was slowly dropping as the heat of the suns was lost behind the ringed gas giant.

If the machine they'd found was right then this darkness would last indefinitely but their food supplies would dry up fast. If they wanted to live then they needed to get moving. Now. He eyed them as they huddled inside the cargo hold, already allotting them into categories of who was worth saving and who would slow him down. The scent of blood was thicker in the air and it took only a moment to realize no one was bleeding that heavily from injuries, that Jack was no boy. Riddick said nothing.

As they loaded up the illuminated sled with the power units, Riddick knew he would have to take care, would have to keep with inside the circle of light with it at his back so as not to blind him. He knew they were counting on his shined vision, and once more he gave a silent thanks to Pope Joe for his workmanship. Ahead of them he could see the creatures and they parted before the light, surrounding the sled, occasionally daring to leap towards Riddick but falling back as soon as the light touched their sensitive flesh. The stench of burning flesh began to overpower the scent of Jack's menstrual blood, other creatures falling upon the injured to tear them apart between razor sharp teeth, beak and talons.

He trod carefully, staying in the light. He was used to being hunted by a different kind of animal, one that walked upright on two legs. Riddick smiled at the thought of the merc hauling the sled behind him; his captor and nemesis, but Johns wouldn't kill him unless he had no choice. Riddick was too big a payday for the Morphine addict.

Only three of them made it off the planet, though for one long moment Riddick hadn't thought he would be one of them. As the emergency ship escaped the gravitational pull of the planet, Riddick took a moment to think of Fry, and the debt he owed her, to be repaid by making sure the Imam and Jack got off the planet alive. He'd kept that promise.

***

Fiorina 161 was a desolate world fit only to be a penal colony, for even Weyland-Yutani had given up on trying to make it hospitable. There was something about the way the three suns moved in this trinary system that undid all their attempts at terraforming. Every twenty or so years, the planets' alignment in M-344 screwed up everything system wide, throwing one planet from endless sunlight into endless night while Fiorina had the pleasure of watching its seas boil on one half of the planet while the rest receded into an ice age.

The penal colony had been built on the narrow strip between the two extremes, subject to turbulent storms that would rage for months on end during the years to follow though with moments of calm in between. Hicks knew it would make it even harder for him to find a means to escape from this place, especially now that Weyland-Yutani had abandoned the colony altogether, leaving the few survivors of the alien attack to fend for themselves. At first he was surprised that Bishop had let him live, aware that he was a potential threat to the Company simply because he had seen too much on LV-426. He knew what Carter Burke had planned for the colonists in Hadley's Hope, and what he had later accomplished with Ripley and Newt.

Much later, he realized the inmates had never revealed his living presence, telling Bishop the same lie that they had originally told Ripley, though without providing his seemingly dead body as evidence that time. As far as the Company was concerned, no one had survived the alien attack on Acheron. Both Ripley and Newt were dead, along with the aliens they had carried inside them, making him wonder how and why he had been spared that particularly gruesome death. Instead he looked into the mirrored surface and stared hard at the acid burns that marred the bristled hairline on the left side of his face. Someone had shaved off all his hair while he was comatose, including his armpits and groin. His groin, in particular, still itched like crazy when the hair began to grow back but he'd learned pretty quickly that it was better to keep on shaving to avoid the lice that seemed to infest the whole colony.

Judging by the amount of tissue scarring on his left shoulder and chest, from where an alien's acid blood had splattered him, he knew the damage to his face could have been far worse. Back on Earth, or on any of the more advanced planets like Helion Prime or Lupus Five, he could have the scars permanently removed, leaving his skin unblemished, but not here on this world with no doctors. The few remaining prisoners were still shell shocked by what had happened to them, and too paranoid to listen to anyone now that their leader was dead.

That was seven months ago and all Hicks could do was try to survive each day until someone else came for them, but he had a feeling that might take the rest of his life. In the meantime, he walked the perimeter around his small camp, ensuring the early warning alarms were set up. Hicks wanted to avoid some of the prisoners who thought the vacuum of leadership should be filled with a new cult, one based on certain members becoming subservient to others in a form of homosexual slavery. They had figured to put him on his knees sucking cock--until he showed them how a Colonial Marine handled a threat. They'd pretty much left him alone since then but he knew he could never let down his guard.

Not that he had anything against sucking cock, or taking it up the ass for that matter. He just preferred to choose his partners.

***

Riddick hummed as he stared at the read out. He was intrigued to discover that the planet beneath them was not the only marginally inhabitable one in the system and if the data on-board the escape ship was reading right, then it housed a penal colony. Riddick knew all about penal colonies, thought he knew the name of every single one but this one was different. This one was a max-slam where the prisoners ran the show, becoming self-sufficient. Only thing they couldn't do was breed unless one of them knew how to swap gender like some reptiles on Garda 6. This was an all male slam, and Riddick figured it might be better to let them all think Jack was a boy in case they got ideas, though it would leave her only marginally safer if they'd taken to finding comfort with other men.

Riddick had seen that happen in slam, mostly power plays with alpha males keeping others in line through force. He'd never taken to the game, one way or the other, having no interest in leading or following. Long as they respected him, he left them alone with their bitches, and if they tried anything, he left them dead with their cock shoved up their own ass as a warning to the others not to fuck with him. As warnings went, it worked well.

He told the Imam and Jack.

"At the very least there will be some form of communications' equipment that we could use to get assistance," the Imam stated.

"And at the worst, they'd have themselves some new toys to play with," he replied laconically.

"With no food and water, and not enough fuel to make it to the next system, we have no choice."

Riddick gave a noncommittal hum, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. They had plenty of choices. They could go back and see what they could scavenge from the dead miners and the Hunter-Gratzner; they could hang up here and turn cannibal if no one answered their distress call soon enough but, perversely, the slam offered the best survival chance--for him at least.

He set course for Fiorina, wary of the read-out that showed the planet was as badly affected by the movement of its suns as its sister planet. Only one area was hospitable enough to land in, and even that was being swept by storms. Still, the electromagnetic interference in the atmosphere would hide their approach and give Riddick enough time to assess the situation inside the slam before they revealed their presence. He smiled. This was the first time he'd ever considered breaking into slam rather than breaking out.

The emergency ship had only the bare essentials in the way of sensors so he set down a mile from the only visible entrance.

"Stay here," he ordered, and hoped they would listen.

Under normal conditions, it wouldn't have taken him long to cross a mile but the storm made the going difficult. Eventually he reached the main complex and took shelter near the door, taking careful note of any security precautions only to realize that the door was not locked. He slipped inside the unlit complex, clinging to the darker shadows as he moved along empty corridors. He hummed softly when he spotted a strange splatter pattern across one wall and floor.

"Acid," he murmured, seeing how the wall and flooring had perforated in places with the metal eaten away.

As he moved through the eerily quiet complex, he saw signs of fighting; droplets of blood and torn clothing, and breached barricades. About to take another step, something caught his attention, something that would have been missed by anyone without shined eyes, and he smiled, head cocking to one side as he examined the simple yet effect alarm system. Someone here had military knowledge. He avoided the trap and moved deeper into the _protected_ area. Without his night vision he might have missed the man sleeping in the deeper shadows of the room. He crouched down beside the man and stared hard into a handsome face that was slightly marred on the left side.

Acid scarring, he thought, months old judging by the way it looked.

Eyes opened suddenly, staring straight at him and Riddick could see muscles bunching ready to attack or defend.

"Not here to fight."

***

Hicks woke with a start, staring up in eyes that glinted almost silver in the darkened room where he had holed up. He tensed, ready to leap to his own defense but the man made no moves, not even a twitch of muscle as he stared back down at Hicks. Taking a moment to look more carefully, he realized that he'd not seen the man before and yet he looked like the others with his shaved head and his prison-hardened attitude.

"Who are you?"

"Name's Johns."

"Never seen you before."

"Not been here before."

Hicks nodded, relaxing a fraction because this meant either the Company had made another prison drop, leaving this man behind, or maybe he was a Merc looking to make a drop and collect a payday. Given a choice, he hoped Johns was a Merc because maybe then he could buy a way off this godforsaken world.

"You a Merc?"

The man smiled with white teeth flashing in the weak light, and gave Hicks another appraising look that seemed to cut through the shadows of the room and right through him, sizing him up from the top of his shaved head down his scarred arm to his marine corps boots.

"You're no prisoner," he stated and then looked away into the corridor beyond this room. "What happened here?"

Hicks sat up slowly, still favoring his injured side where the acid scarred flesh felt tight. "You want the short or the long version?"

"I got time."

Hicks stuck to a shortened version nonetheless, telling the man about Acheron and the monsters they found there, only to have Johns give a harsh, almost barking laugh.

"Not joking, man. I've never seen anything like it."

"Had my own run in with monsters not so long ago." Johns was grinning wryly as he spoke but then he turned serious, eying Hicks cautiously. "How many of you escaped?"

Hicks wondered if he had already said too much but decided he had to trust someone. He'd spent too long alone.

"There was three of us. But I didn't know the other two were impregnated with aliens. They kept me in cryo after..." He raised his arm to reveal some of the worst of the scarring. "We crashed here seven months back. By the time I came out of cryo it was all over. Ripley...Ripley was dead. Aliens were dead." He laughed sadly. "Most of the prisoners were dead too, and those still left alive were abandoned by the Company."

"Weyland-Yutani."

Hicks nodded. "Get me off this planet and I'll pay you."

"No."

"I'm good with a gun."

"Don't doubt it."

Hicks looked hard at the man but could see no sign of Johns changing his mind without giving him a far better reason, and Hicks was fresh out of ideas right now. He had to admit that something was very wrong though, his sixth sense kicking into high gear because John's must have slipped into the complex rather than announced his presence. That didn't make a lot of sense if he was here to drop off a prisoner and gain a reward.

"You're not here to make a drop." Cautiously, Hicks moved his fingers to locate the gun he slept with these days.

"Looking for this?" Johns held up the gun.

Hicks stared hard at the man, taking in the shined eyes and the smoothly shaved head. "You're a Company merc."

Johns laughed again with that same low, hoarse, barking sound. "No." He flipped the gun and offered it to Hicks, butt first, and Hicks wondered what had made the man choose to trust him. "We got a lot in common..."

"Hicks. Dwayne Hicks." Things were starting to make sense. "Hope us having lots in common doesn't mean what I think it means," he stated softly because they only thing they had in common, other than shaved heads and monsters, was being trapped on this world. He had his answer moments later.

"Was on a cargo ship. Crashed on the other side of this system."

"You picked a bad time." Hicks recalled the lecture one of the prisoners had given about the impending climate change due to the imminent planetary alignment.

"Yeah. Figured that much." He sighed heavily. "Found an old escape ship. Three of us escaped; the rest died in the crash or were eaten."

"So I take it your escape ship isn't equipped for more than interplanetary flight."

Hicks didn't need an answer as it was written in the lack of expression on Johns' face. Despite the knowledge, he felt strangely pleased as this meant the earlier refusal to take him off planet was nothing personal.

"The _Sulaco_ 's escape ship has inter-system engines and cryo for six, but she was damaged during the landing." He licked his lips. "If I help you cannibalize your ship to repair mine... we all go. You, me, and your two passengers."

"And the rest of the prisoners?"

"They think it's better than fine here with the Company gone. They destroyed all the communications equipment to make sure no one could call for help off this rock."

Johns hummed as if he understood all too well how the prisoners had reacted to the sudden lack of prison guards. "You got yourself a deal."

***

Riddick hadn't anticipated finding someone like Hicks and if he hadn't just escaped from his own nightmare, complete with monsters, then he might not have believed the story Hicks had told of highly aggressive aliens with acid for blood that lay eggs inside a human host. Part of him wished he could have come across one of Hick's aliens, to see if it was the perfect killing machine that Hick's described but he'd battled enough monsters recently, alien and human.

He followed Hicks through the corridors until they were outside, stumbling through the wind and stinging rain for at least a mile almost 90 degrees to the direction back to the escape ship where the Imam and Jack were, hopefully, staying exactly where he told them. At the edge of a rough sea, well hidden from the penal colony's main complex, Riddick saw Hick's ship and, together, they opened the hatch and entered, relieved to get out of the stormy weather.

Hicks was shaking with the cold, his thin clothing offering little in the way of protection whereas Riddick had at least borrowed the Imam's heavier garb. He watched as Hicks pointed out all the repairs needed to get the ship space worthy. Most of the interior had been gutted, or maybe scavenged was a better word, but the Fiorina prisoners had left the rest alone, probably unaware that it needed only minimal repairs to get it back up into space. Someone had been out here though, welding the hull and repairing consoles. With no inclination left to haul heavy equipment between the two ships, having dragged three heavy power cells between the Hunter-Gratzner and the escape ship, Riddick left Hicks behind and returned to the Imam and Jack.

As the ramp door sealed behind him, he felt a moment of relief upon finding his fellow survivors exactly where he had left them.

"Riddick!"

Jack looked scared beneath her tough act, and he had a feeling they would have come looking for him had he left them alone much longer.

"Been a change of management. Could have used Fry round about now to fix up a better ship to get us off here."

He sank into the pilot's seat and powered up the ship. The high winds made it hard to maneuver but he managed to keep her low to the ground and bring her down within twenty feet of Hicks's ship. By now night was falling, though it was barely noticeable due to the darkness of the storm, and Riddick preferred the darkness anyway.

He worked through the night, seated side-by side with Hicks, making repairs while Jack and the Imam fetched what they needed and kept a watch for any movement beyond. Riddick noticed Hicks' familiarity with the ship, the easy way he moved between one repair and another now that he had the scavenged parts from Riddick's ship and knew that Hicks had been the one out here working on the ship before. Despite the heavy scarring on his left side, Hicks had dexterous fingers, separating out damaged wiring with ease and replacing it while Riddick worked on the cryopods. Two were damaged beyond repair; one with acid burns while the other had been smashed by part of the ship's interior structure. It didn't make sense because these ships were designed to withstand high impacts. He tore those ones out and discarded them outside the ship, wanting to reduce the weight load because if his calculations were correct, then the remaining power in the cells of his escape ship would barely be enough to achieve a stable orbit. They needed more power after that to set the ship moving on course for the nearest civilized system. Inertia in the vacuum of space would do the rest. Hicks seemed to notice his interest in the damaged cryopod.

"They did it...The prisoners. They wanted to make it look like I was dead. I think they had other plans for me but the aliens put an end to them."

With the months of work carried out by Hicks before Riddick's arrival, the final repairs were made quickly. Riddick checked and double checked each of the cryopods until he was sure they were safe.

Three days after arriving on Fiorina, Hicks looked up and nodded.

"It's ready?" Jack asked.

Riddick nodded back. "And none too soon," he stated as the storm abated, aware that the remaining prisoners might use the lull in the storm to leave the complex to scavenge for food and materials. The risk of one of them stumbling upon them had gone up exponentially. As if to confirm his thoughts, Riddick caught a flash of movement on the rocks several hundred feet away, watched as the man turned and ran back towards the complex. Riddick didn't bother to give chase, knowing the man had too good a head start on him.

"We have to go now."

He closed the hatch and dropped into the flight cockpit next to Hicks, watching Hicks silently cursing the time consuming take-off procedures as Hicks slowly powered up the engines. Relief filled Riddick when they caught instantly, confirming that his faith in Hicks had not been misplaced. They were lifting off before the others had even managed to strap in, and only just in time as more than twenty men came running from the complex, make-shift weapons brandished in their hands.

The ship was buffeted on all sides as they rose through the turbulent clouds and high winds, his grin wide and green eyes shining as they broke through the atmosphere into the darkness of space.

"Beautiful," Riddick murmured, staring at Hicks rather than at the bright stars littering the view outside the cockpit window.

***

Hicks half-expected Johns to insist that he go into cryosleep first but Johns surprised him by setting up the cryopods for Jack and the Imam, watching him talk softly to each of them before they climbed inside their units. He'd seen the process plenty of times in the past but this time it felt strange because this wasn't the sterile environment of a Marine Corps troop carrier like the _Sulaco_. Jack argued a little but Johns was insistent, voice low and menacing, sending shivers down Hicks' spine.

Finally, only the two of them remained awake.

"Johns?"

"Riddick. Richard B. Riddick."

Hicks nodded, aware that Johns...that Riddick was trusting him with more than his life by giving him his real name. He swallowed hard and looked across at the two remaining cryopods, knowing he was going to have to trust Riddick not to kill him in his sleep either with a knife or with a malfunctioning cryopod. He huffed out a laugh because there was no guarantee that any of their makeshift repairs on the cryopods would work so he just had to hope that he woke up again some day but, for all he knew, this could be his last waking moment.

Riddick seemed to understand that too, stalking forward in the limited space until he was standing toe-to-toe with Hicks, neither willing to give ground. Lips sealed against his, firm and yet infinitely tender as strong hands dragged him closer to Riddick's muscular frame. Hicks pushed back hard, wanting to make sure Riddick knew he was no soft lay, that they would be equals in whatever happened next, and he shivered again as Riddick's laugh ghosted over his throat, breath warm. They parted only when Riddick grabbed at the hem of Hicks' shirt and dragged it over his head.

One hand gentled against his scarred flesh, the sensitive skin tingling in the wake of a single finger, and then that hard mouth was on his again, tongue thrusting insistently, demandingly, and he gave back with equal strength, unwilling to yield. A hand wormed its way between them, knuckles pushing against his hard erection, and drawing a guttural moan of pure pleasure from both their lips as Hicks reciprocated. Pants were undone, the cool air in the ship in contrast to the heat of fingers wrapping around his cock greedily, Hicks thrust into the tunnel of fingers, letting Riddick swallow his moans of pleasure as the possessive kiss deepened. All too soon that heady sensation overwhelmed him and he was coming, fast and furious, his release splattering between them.

Somehow he managed to keep his knees locked, managed to stay upright long enough for Riddick to follow him over the edge, feeling the scalding heat of his release against his belly. They panted hard against each other's necks, sticky fingers still caught between them stroking gently, releasing tiny aftershocks of pleasure until they pulled apart by mutual agreement.

Riddick stared at him for a long moment, then reeled him in and kissed him hard, needing no words to express his thanks. They cleaned up quickly, efficiently, and Hicks saved them both from another macho face-off by climbing inside the cryopod and closing his eyes. Before the lid closed he felt the soft brush of lips against his scarred temple... and when he awoke weeks later, they were entering orbit above New Mecca. The Imam and Jack were still sleeping... but Riddick was gone.

END


End file.
